Irish Rugby Chief On Whether Or Not They Will Bid For A Rugby World Cup Again

“World Rugby and RWC need to decide what sort of a tournament they want,”

IRFU chief executive Phillip Browne has said that World Rugby would need to re-evaluate what it wants from a World Cup for smaller countries such as Ireland, if they are to consider bidding for the showpiece event again.

France were awarded the 2023 Rugby World Cup today, with Ireland unable to even make it to the second round of voting after securing a paltry eight votes.

When asked as to whether Ireland would run again, Browne says not under the current parameters set by World Rugby. The Irish Rugby boss reckons the commercial side of the tournament shouldn’t be everything.

“World Rugby and RWC need to decide what sort of a tournament they want,”

“And, yes, of course there is the commercial imperative but that shouldn’t be everything. Why should we not run a tournament? We can run a tournament perfectly well, a world class tournament and we can produce significant revenues – we’ve shown that we can produce significant revenues for Rugby World Cup. But, listen, that’s a question that really needs to be directed at World Rugby.

“We had a vision for the tournament, a lot of people liked our vision for the tournament, but it obviously didn’t accord with RWC’s vision.”

Browne didn’t completely rule out bidding for another Rugby World Cup, but believes Ireland simply couldn’t have done anything more to secure the 2023 event.

“Really, it’s much too soon to be thinking about that. What we need to do is regroup, sit down in the cold light of day in a week or two, a month or two, and just see exactly where we stand and if we could have done anything better. To be honest, I don’t think we could have done anything more.”

“I have to congratulate our governments, North of Ireland and in the Republic and indeed the government here in the UK who gave us huge support. They did everything that they could and it’s been a good experience for our administration, both north and south, in working together on a project that has no agenda at all.”